Tài liệu The future impact of the Internet on higher education: Experts expect more-efficient collaborative environments and new grading schemes; they worry about massive online courses, the shift away from on-campus life docx

1 The future impact of the Internet on higher education: Experts expect more-efficient collaborative environments and new grading schemes; they worry about massive online courses, the

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The future impact of the Internet on higher

education: Experts expect more-efficient

collaborative environments and new grading schemes; they worry about massive online

courses, the shift away from on-campus life

Tech experts believe market factors will push universities to expand online

courses, create hybrid learning spaces, move toward ‘lifelong learning’ models and different credentialing structures by the year 2020 But they disagree about how these whirlwind forces will influence education, for the better or the worse

Janna Quitney Anderson, Elon University

Jan Lauren Boyles, Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project Lee Rainie, Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project

July 27, 2012

Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project

An initiative of the Pew Research Center

http://www.imaginingtheinternet.org

Today, though, the business of higher education seems to some as susceptible to tech

disruption as other information-centric industries such as the news media, magazines and journals, encyclopedias, music, motion pictures, and television The transmission of knowledge need no longer be tethered to a college campus The technical affordances of cloud-based computing, digital textbooks, mobile connectivity, high-quality streaming video, and “just-in-time” information gathering have pushed vast amounts of knowledge to the “placeless” Web This has sparked a robust re-examination of the modern university’s mission and its role within networked society

One major driver of the debate about the future of the university centers on its beleaguered business model Students and parents, stretched by rising tuition costs, are increasingly

challenging the affordability of a college degree as well as the diploma’s ultimate value as an employment credential

A March 2012 study by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press found that 60% of American adults viewed universities as having a positive effect on how things are going in the country and 84% of college graduates say that the expense of going to college was a good investment for them.2 Yet another Pew Research Center survey in 2011 found that 75% of adults say college is too expensive for most Americans to afford.3 Moreover, 57% said that the higher education system in the U.S fails to provide students with good value for the money they and their families spend

This set of circumstances has catalyzed the marketplace Universities are watching competitors encroach on their traditional mission The challengers include for-profit universities, nonprofit learning organizations such as the Khan Academy, commercial providers of lecture series, online services such as iTunes U, and a host of specialized training centers that provide instruction and credentials for particular trades and professions. 4 All these can easily scale online instruction delivery more quickly than can brick-and-mortar institutions

Consequently, higher education administrators—sometimes constrained by budgetary shortfalls and change-resistant academic cultures—are trying to respond and retool The Pew Research Center 2011 study found in a survey of college presidents that more than three-fourths (77%) of respondents said their institution offered online course offerings Half said they believe that

1 The modern universities of Europe first came into existence at the end of the 1000s with the University of Bologna in 1088 See http://www.eng.unibo.it/PortaleEn/University/Our+History/default.htm

2 See newsletter

http://www.people-press.org/2012/03/01/colleges-viewed-positively-but-conservatives-express-doubts/?src=prc-3 Is College Worth It?” Pew Research Center Social and Demographic Trends Available at:

http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2011/05/15/is-college-worth-it/#executive-summary

4 See

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/06/science/daphne-koller-technology-as-a-passport-to-personalized-education.html?pagewanted=all & http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9223593/Apple_s_new_vision_of_education

Experimentation and innovation are proliferating Some colleges are delving into hybrid learning environments, which employ online and offline instruction and interaction with professors Others are channeling efforts into advanced teleconferencing and distance learning platforms—with streaming video and asynchronous discussion boards—to heighten engagement online Even as all this change occurs, there are those who argue that the core concept and method of universities will not radically change They argue that mostly unfulfilled predictions of significant improvement in the effectiveness and wider distribution of education accompany every major new communication technology In the early days of their evolution, radio, television, personal computers—and even the telephone—were all predicted to be likely to revolutionize formal education Nevertheless, the standardized knowledge-transmission model is primarily the same today as it was when students started gathering at the University of Bologna in 1088

Imagine where we might be in 2020 The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project and Elon University’s Imagining the Internet Center asked digital stakeholders to weigh two scenarios for 2020 One posited substantial change and the other projected only modest change in higher education Some 1,021 experts and stakeholders responded

39% agreed with a scenario that articulated modest change by the end of the decade:

In 2020, higher education will not be much different from the way it is today While people will be accessing more resources in classrooms through the use of large screens, teleconferencing, and personal wireless smart devices, most universities will mostly require in-person, on-campus attendance of students most of the time at courses

featuring a lot of traditional lectures Most universities' assessment of learning and their requirements for graduation will be about the same as they are now

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60% agreed with a scenario outlining more change:

By 2020, higher education will be quite different from the way it is today There will be mass adoption of teleconferencing and distance learning to leverage expert resources Significant numbers of learning activities will move to individualized, just-in-time

learning approaches There will be a transition to "hybrid" classes that combine online learning components with less-frequent on-campus, in-person class meetings Most universities' assessment of learning will take into account more individually-oriented outcomes and capacities that are relevant to subject mastery Requirements for

graduation will be significantly shifted to customized outcomes

Respondents were asked to select the one statement of the two scenarios above with which they mostly agreed; the question was framed this way in order to encourage survey participants

to share spirited and deeply considered written elaborations about the potential future of higher education While 60% agreed with the statement that education will be transformed between now and the end of the decade, a significant number of the survey participants said the true outcome will encompass portions of both scenarios Just 1% of survey takers did not respond

Here are some of the major themes and arguments they made:

Higher education will vigorously adopt new teaching approaches, propelled by opportunity and efficiency as well as student and parent demands

 Several respondents echoed the core argument offered by Alex Halavais, associate

professor at Quinnipiac University and vice president of the Association of Internet Researchers, who wrote: “There will be far more extreme changes institutionally in the next few years, and the universities that survive will do so mainly by becoming highly adaptive…The most interesting shifts in post-secondary education may happen outside

of universities, or at least on the periphery of traditional universities There may be universities that remain focused on the traditional lecture and test, but there will be less

demand for them.”

 Charlie Firestone, executive director of the Communications and Society program at the

Aspen Institute, wrote: “The timeline might be a bit rushed, but education—higher and

K-12—has to change with the technology The technology will allow for more

individualized, passion-based learning by the student, greater access to master teaching, and more opportunities for students to connect to others—mentors, peers, sources—for enhanced learning experiences.”

 Mike Liebhold, senior researcher and distinguished fellow at The Institute for the

Future, predicted that market forces will advance emergent content delivery methods:

“Under current and foreseeable economic conditions, traditional classroom instruction will become decreasingly viable financially As high-speed networks become more widely accessible tele-education and hybrid instruction will become more widely

employed.”

 Jeff Jarvis, director of the Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism at the City

University of New York Graduate School of Journalism, placed the debate in broader

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historical context: “Will there still be universities? Likely, but not certain…[there is] the idea that our current educational system, start to end, is built for an industrial era, churning out students like widgets who are taught to churn out widgets themselves That is a world where there is one right answer: We spew it from a lectern; we expect it

to be spewed back in a test That kind of education does not produce the innovators who would invent Google The real need for education in the economy will be re-

education As industries go through disruption and jobs are lost forever, people will need to be retrained for new roles Our present educational structure is not built for that, but in that I see great entrepreneurial opportunity.”

 P.F Anderson, emerging technologies librarian at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor,

predicted seismic shifts within the academy, writing, “The very concept of what a university is, what academia is, what adult learning is, all of these are changing

profoundly If you think back to the original purposes of universities, what they have been doing recently has pivoted roughly 180 degrees.”

Economic realities will drive technological innovation forward by 2020, creating less

uniformity in higher education

 Donald G Barnes, visiting professor at Guangxi University in China and former director

of the Science Advisory Board at the U.S Environmental Protection Agency, predicted,

“The high and growing cost of university education cannot be sustained, particularly in the light of the growing global demand for such education Therefore, there is already a rush to utilize the new medium of the Internet as a means of delivering higher

education experience and products in more economical and efficient modes.”

 Tapio Varis, professor emeritus at the University of Tampere and principal research

associate with the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, maintained that heightened inequalities may arise based upon instructional delivery formats “The economic reasons will determine much of the destiny of higher education,” he wrote

“Traditional face-to-face higher education will become a privilege of a few, and there will be demand for global standardization of some fields of education which also will lower the level in many cases.”

 Sean Mead, director of solutions architecture, valuation, and analytics for Mead, Mead

& Clark, Interbrand, noted that institutions will stratify based upon their respective concentrations of teaching, research, or service “Forced into greater accountability at the same time as Baby Boomer retirements revitalize the faculties, universities will undergo widespread reformation,” he said “Some will refocus professorial metrics from running up publication counts to the profession of teaching and delivering strong

educations Others will engage the community in outreach efforts to make learning more accessible More universities will follow the MIT and Stanford examples of serving the public with free access to course materials and courses…There will be increasing corporate involvement in universities, including better communication of the knowledge that is developed and housed there Research will increasingly be driven out from behind the high-premium-pay walls of academic journals and into the open, where scholars and the public can more easily benefit from federally funded and grant-

supported research projects.”

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“Distance learning” is a divisive issue It is viewed with disdain by many who don’t see it as effective; others anticipate great advances in knowledge-sharing tools by 2020

 Online course offerings generally fail to mirror the robust face-to-face interaction that

occurs within the physical classroom, warned Sam Punnett, president of FAD Research

Inc “On-screen learning is appropriate in some instances, particularly as a supplement

to the classroom,” he said, “but it will always be inferior in the quality of information exchange and interaction In 2020 it is my hope that programs that employ instructors who are ‘in the room’ will be generally acknowledged to be in a separate tier.”

 On the other hand, Peter Pinch, director of technology for WGBH, a public media

company, predicted renewed innovation in remote learning platforms will mark the university by 2020 “As communications technologies improve and we learn how to use them better, the requirement for people to meet face-to-face for effective teaching and learning will diminish,” he predicted “Some institutions will focus on facilitating virtual environments and may lose any physical aspect Other institutions will focus on the most high-value face-to-face interactions, such as group discussions and labs, and will shed commodity teaching activities like large lectures.”

 Fred Hapgood, technology author and consultant, and writer for Wired, Discover, and

other tech and science publications, said, “The key challenge of the next five years—I say ‘the’ because of the importance of education for the entire global labor force and

the importance of reducing its crushing costs—will be developing ways of integrating distance learning with social networking I am confident this challenge will be met.”

‘Bricks’ replaced by ‘clicks’? Some say universities’ influence could be altered as new

technology options emerge; others say ‘locatedness’ is still vital for an optimal outcome

 An anonymous survey respondent noted, “The age of brick-and-mortar dinosaur schools

is about to burst—another bubble ready to pop The price is too high; it's grossly

inflated and the return on investment isn't there Online learning will be in the

ascendant There will be more international interactions; I believe we will see somewhat

of a return to a Socratic model of single sage to self-selecting student group, but instead

of the Acropolis, the site will be the Internet, and the students will be from

everywhere.”

 Another anonymous survey participant wrote, “Several forces will impact this: the general overall increase in the levels of education globally, the developing world using Web and cell technology to jump over intermediate technologies, the high cost of face-to-face instruction, the improvement of AI as a factor in individualizing education, the passing of the Baby Boomers as educators in the system, the demand for Millennials and beyond for relevant learning models, China will develop a leading learning format, first

to educate its population and then expand it to teach the world.”

 Matthew Allen, professor of Internet Studies at Curtin University in Perth, Australia, and

past president of the Association of Internet Researchers, visualizes 2020’s ivory tower through a socio-cultural lens: “While education is being, and has been already,

profoundly influenced by technologies, nevertheless it is a deeply social and political

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institution in our cultures Universities are not just portals where students access

learning, they are places in which people develop as social beings, in some quite

specifically institutional ways Therefore technology will change the way learning occurs and the way it is assessed, and it definitely means there is more blending of learning activities on- and offline, but it will not—for the majority—change the fundamental locatedness of university education.”

 There were also people who said technology should never drive change An anonymous respondent wrote, “Technology is no substitute for traditional education ‘Vir bonus dicendi peritus’ or the good man who can speak well will not be brought about by techno-based thinking.”

Frustration and doubt mark the prospect of change within the academy

 Numerous respondents bemoaned higher education’s historically glacial rate of change

An anonymous respondent said, “From the 1960s book The Peter Principle, the system

exists to perpetuate itself Regrettably large universities lack the nimbleness to be able

to adapt to rapidly changing realities The system of higher education (as someone who has spent the last 20 years at major universities) is already broken, but instead of

changing to make a university education more relevant, we herd students into larger and larger lectures and ask them to regurgitate esoteric facts.”

 Hugh F Cline, adjunct professor of sociology and education at Columbia University,

noted, “Higher education is one of the most resistant social institutions ever created Many of the innovations you mention are under way in universities around the globe, but it will take a long time before significant numbers of students in colleges and

universities will have these advantages.”

 Mary Starry, an assistant professor at the College of Pharmacy of the University of Iowa,

similarly explained, “Research has provided us much information on how people learn and what approaches to education are best to produce critical-thinking, lifelong-learning graduates Yet, we continue to describe as ‘innovative’ the different techniques and approaches that we've known about for much longer than ten years Technology now provides new and exciting ways to incorporate these approaches into the classroom, but our education system structure is too mired in historical lecture and ‘brain dump’ methodology.”

 An anonymous survey participant wrote, “The ‘university’ has not changed substantially

since its founding in about 800 AD or so Other than adding books, electricity, and women, it is still primarily an older person ‘lecturing’ to a set of younger ones…There will be both a large number of largely traditional universities and an ever-expanding range of alternatives in both technology and organizational form.”

 Another anonymous respondent complained, “Universities are awfully slow to adapt And why should they? At present they have a lucrative monopoly In what other

industry do you see such runaway price increases? They’ll ride that for as long as they can and only change when on the cusp of irrelevance.”

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Change is happening incrementally, but these adjustments will not be universal in most

institutions by 2020

 Jonathan Grudin, principal researcher at Microsoft, observed, “Institutional inertia

should not be underestimated, so whether 2020 will see ‘mass adoption’ of the features described above could depend on how one defines ‘mass.’ But it has, of course, already started to happen.”

 Many survey respondents, including Mark J Franklin, director of computing services

and software engineering for the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College, do not anticipate massive upheaval in the academy by 2020 “My gut reaction is that in

2020 higher education is entrenched in its current format,” he predicted “I believe teachers and textbook companies will resist—and even now are resisting—modern technology that could be helping students When I see iPads and Kindles in every

student's backpack instead of fifty pounds worth of textbooks, I'll know there has been a change When I see every campus completely and speedily wired—or providing

wireless—for the Internet, I'll know things have changed When I see computers in the libraries and assistants helping students navigate to computers and libraries around the globe, I'll know things have changed I just don't think it will happen by 2020 Maybe 2050.”

 Steve Jones, distinguished professor of communication at the University of

Illinois-Chicago and a founding leader of the Association of Internet Researchers, echoed that thought “It's commonly and rightly believed that universities change slowly,” he said,

“and in a difficult economic environment, particularly for public institutions, change comes more slowly than usual Simply put, few universities can afford to change from the way they are today While a riposte is that they cannot afford not to change, inertia

is powerful, and taking the long view is hard By 2020 not much will have changed.”

 Richard Holeton, director of academic computing services at Stanford University

Libraries, added, “Change in higher education, as they say, is like turning an aircraft carrier In eight or nine years we will continue to see incremental changes, but not the more radical transformations described.”

Universities will adopt new pedagogical approaches while retaining the core of traditional methods

 Richard D Titus, a seed-funding venture capitalist at his own fund, Octavian Ventures,

predicted, “The future is a hybrid of both of the approaches No one can disagree that higher education needs—no, requires—a complete rethink Our current toolsets and thinking are over 400 years old and give little regard to the changes in society,

resources, or access, which facilitate both greater specialization and broader access than at any time in the previous two centuries.”

 Face-to-face instruction, complemented by online interaction, makes up a hybrid model

that many survey participants foresee Melinda Blau, a freelance journalist and author,

wrote, “The future will hold both outcomes It depends on the course of study and the

college.”

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 Susan Crawford, a professor at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government

who previously served as President Obama's Special Assistant for Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy, wrote that she expects an influx of customized course content will be fused with the traditional elements of a multidisciplinary college education

“We've got to move to much more individual, hyperlinked learning experiences,” she said “At the same time, modeling good behavior and good thinking style remains something useful that teachers do for students…I'm hopeful that we'll find a way of educating that inculcates the values a true liberal arts education was supposed to support—lifelong learning, lifelong foolishness (hymn to Stuart Brand), and lifelong awe.”

 An anonymous participant wrote, “I expect a huge movement towards

knowledge-management tools that enhance the learning practice and focus on each individual path while maintaining engagement at a social level This could make the learning experience tailored to each individual and at the same time aggregate responses and perceptions from a large group of students in order to direct toward specific learning goals.”

 Another anonymous respondent predicted, “Universities will continue their transition to hybrid classes using online learning components and occasional in-person meetings, while smaller colleges will both adopt online capabilities and technologies to promote access to remote resources while maintaining a focus on in-person, on-campus

attendance of seminars and (some) lectures The length of the learning period (the traditional four-year degree) may change as a result of the focus on combined learning, with integration of more off-site activities with the traditional scholastic setting I also think that economic factors over the next few years may promote the evolution of educational institutions along the lines of a transition to hybrid learning, while also preventing any mass adoption of just-in-time approaches.”

Collaborative education with peer-to-peer learning will become a bigger reality and will challenge the lecture format and focus on “learning how to learn.”

 Autonomy will be shifted away from the sole lecturer in tomorrow’s university

classrooms, maintains Bob Frankston, a computing pioneer and the co-developer and marketer of VisiCalc “Ideally, people will learn to educate themselves with teachers acting as mentors and guides,” he wrote

 By 2020, universities should re-examine how technology can enhance students’ critical

thinking and information acquisition skills, noted Wesley George, principal engineer for

the Advanced Technology Group at Time Warner Cable “The educational system is largely broken,” he said “It's too focused on the result of getting a degree rather than

teaching people how to learn: how to digest huge amounts of information, craft a

cogent argument in favor of or against a topic, and how to think for oneself Individuals learn differently, and we are starting to finally have the technology to embrace that instead of catering to the lowest common denominator.”

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 Hal Varian, chief economist at Google, said, “Just-in-Time learning is a very important

phenomenon that will have a big role to play in the future…Universities should, and I hope will, focus more on ‘how to learn’ rather than simply ‘learning.’”

 Universities should additionally ensure their graduates are poised for 2020’s job market,

maintains danah boyd, a senior researcher at Microsoft Research “Higher education

will not change very fast, although it should,” she wrote “But what's at stake has

nothing to do with the amount of technology being used What's at stake has to do with the fact that universities are not structured to provide the skills that are needed for a rapidly changing labor, creative force.”

Competency credentialing and certification are likely…

 Rick Holmgren, chief information officer at Allegheny College, said, “Many institutions,

particularly large state institutions, will have shifted to competency-driven

credentialing, which may not require traditional class work at all, but rather the

demonstration of competency.”

 Morley Winograd, co-author of Millennial Momentum: How a New Generation is

Remaking America, similarly argued, “The deflection point for the more fundamental

change will occur when universities no longer grant degrees, but rather certify

knowledge and skill levels, in much more finite ways as your scenario envisions Major university brands will offer such certificates based on their standards for certifying various competencies that employers will be identifying for their new hires.”

…yet institutional barriers may prevent widespread degree customization

 Scalability may present a hurdle toward achieving personalization, argued David Ellis,

director of communication studies at York University in Toronto “Customizing

education is too complicated for large institutions,” he argued “And if outcomes are made too personal, a perception of bias or unfairness is likely to arise.”

 Joan Lorden, provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs at University of North

Carolina-Charlotte, predicted, “Customized assessment is unlikely There is still a general sense in most university faculties that there are certain foundational elements that must

be addressed in a high-quality educational experience.”

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Survey Method:

‘Tension pairs’ were designed to provoke detailed elaborations

This material was gathered in the fifth “Future of the Internet” survey conducted by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project and Elon University’s Imagining the Internet Center The surveys are conducted through an online questionnaire sent to selected experts who are encouraged to share the link with informed friends, thus also involving the highly engaged Internet public The surveys present potential-future scenarios to which respondents react with their expectations based on current knowledge and attitudes You can view detailed results from the 2004, 2006, 2008, and 2010 surveys here:

http://www.pewInternet.org/topics/Future-of-the-Internet.aspx and web/predictions/expertsurveys/default.xhtml Expanded results are also published in the

http://www.elon.edu/e-“Future of the Internet” book series published by Cambria Press

The surveys are conducted to help accurately identify current attitudes about the potential future for networked communications and are not meant to imply any type of futures forecast Respondents to the Future of the Internet V survey, fielded from August 28 to Oct 31, 2011, were asked to consider the future of the Internet-connected world between now and 2020 They were asked to assess eight different “tension pairs”—each pair offering two different 2020 scenarios with the same overall theme and opposite outcomes—and they were asked to select the one most likely choice of two statements The tension pairs and their alternative outcomes were constructed to reflect emerging debates about the impact of the Internet, distilling

statements made by pundits, scholars and technology analysts about likely Internet evolution They were reviewed and edited by the Pew Internet Advisory Board

Results are being released in eight separate reports over the course of 2012 This is the final report in the series Links to the previous seven reports can be found here: http://bit.ly/x9I2p0

About the survey and the participants

Please note that this survey is primarily aimed at eliciting focused observations on the likely impact and influence of the Internet—not on the respondents’ choices from the pairs of

predictive statements Many times when respondents “voted” for one scenario over another, they responded in their elaboration that both outcomes are likely to a degree or that an

outcome not offered would be their true choice Survey participants were informed that “it is likely you will struggle with most or all of the choices and some may be impossible to decide; we hope that will inspire you to write responses that will explain your answer and illuminate

participants were selected due to their positions as stakeholders in the development of the Internet Because this particular survey included a question about higher education, university administrators

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were invited by email to respond, as were participants in the 2011 EDUCAUSE and MobilityShifts: International Future of Learning conferences The experts were invited to encourage people they know to also participate

Why you won’t find many top higher education administrators’ names in this report: Participants were allowed to remain anonymous In general, across the entire eight-question 2012 survey set, about half of the expert responses were anonymous responses

The respondents’ remarks reflect their personal positions on the issues and are not the positions of their employers; however, their leadership roles in key organizations help identify them as experts Following is a representative list of some of the institutions at which respondents work or have affiliations or previous work experience: Harvard University, MIT, Yale University, Georgetown University, Oxford Internet Institute, Princeton University, Carnegie-Mellon University, University of Pennsylvania, University of California-Berkeley, Columbia University, University of Southern

California, Cornell University, University of North Carolina, Purdue University, Duke University, Syracuse University, New York University, Ohio University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Florida State University, University of Kentucky, University of Texas, University of Maryland, University of Kansas, University of Illinois, Boston College, Google, the World Bank, Microsoft, Cisco Systems, Yahoo, Intel, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Ericsson Research, Nokia, O’Reilly Media, Verizon

Communications, Institute for the Future, Federal Communications Commission, World Wide Web Consortium, National Geographic Society, Association of Internet Researchers, Internet2, Internet Society, Institute for the Future, and the Santa Fe Institute

While many respondents are at the pinnacle of Internet leadership, some of the survey respondents are “working in the trenches” of building the web Most of the people in this latter segment of responders came to the survey by invitation because they are on the email list of the Pew Internet & American Life Project, they responded to notices about the survey on social media sites or they were invited by the expert invitees They are not necessarily opinion leaders for their industries or well-known futurists, but it is striking how much their views are distributed in ways that parallel those who are celebrated in the technology field

While a wide range of opinion from experts, organizations, and interested institutions was sought, this survey should not be taken as a representative canvassing of Internet experts By design, this survey was an “opt in,” self-selecting effort That process does not yield a random, representative sample The quantitative results are based on a non-random online sample of 1,021 Internet experts and other Internet users, recruited by email invitation, Twitter, Google+, or Facebook Since the data are based on a non-random sample, a margin of error cannot be computed, and results are not projectable to any population other than the respondents in this sample

When asked about their primary workplace, 40% of the survey participants identified

themselves as a research scientist or as employed by a college or university; 12% said they were employed by a company whose focus is on information technology; 11% said they work at a nonprofit organization; 8% said they work at a consulting business, 10% said they work at a company that uses information technology extensively; 5 % noted they work for a government agency; and 2% said they work for a publication or media company

When asked about their “primary area of Internet interest,” 15% identified themselves as research scientists; 11% said they were futurists or consultants; 11% said they were

entrepreneurs or business leaders; 11% identified themselves as authors, editors or journalists;

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10% as technology developers or administrators; 6% as advocates or activist users; 5% as

legislators, politicians or lawyers; 3% as pioneers or originators; and 28% specified their primary area of interest as “other.” A number of higher education leaders were invited to participate in this survey and many of them are likely in that group The set of identifying terms in this

demographic question was established in the Imagining the Internet Center’s initial study of predictions—the Early ‘90s Database: http://www.elon.edu/e-web/predictions/early90s/

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Main Findings: Higher education’s destination by 2020

TOTAL RESPONSES Tension pair on future of higher education

way it is today While people will be accessing more resources

in classrooms through the use of large screens, teleconferencing, and personal wireless smart devices, most universities will mostly require in-person, on-campus

attendance of students most of the time at courses featuring a lot of traditional lectures Most universities' assessment of learning and their requirements for graduation will be about the same as they are now

60 By 2020, higher education will be quite different from the way it

is today There will be mass adoption of teleconferencing and distance learning to leverage expert resources Significant numbers of learning activities will move to individualized, just-in-time learning approaches There will be a transition to

"hybrid" classes that combine online learning components with less-frequent on-campus, in-person class meetings Most universities' assessment of learning will take into account more individually-oriented outcomes and capacities that are relevant

to subject mastery Requirements for graduation will be significantly shifted to customized outcomes

PLEASE ELABORATE: What will universities look like in 2020? Explain your choice and

share your view of any implications for the future of universities What are the positives,

negatives, and shades of grey in the likely future you anticipate? (If you want your answer cited to you, please begin your elaboration by typing your name and professional identity Otherwise your comment will be anonymous.)

Note: The survey results are based on a non-random online sample of 1,021 Internet experts and other Internet users, recruited

via email invitation, conference invitation, or link shared on Twitter, Google Plus or Facebook from the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project and Elon University Since the data are based on a non-random sample, a margin of error cannot

be computed, and the results are not projectable to any population other than the people participating in this sample The

“predictive” scenarios used in this tension pair were composed based on current popular speculation They were created to elicit thoughtful responses to commonly found speculative futures thinking on this topic in 2011; this is not a formal forecast.

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The survey participants were divided over the societal impact of online delivery methods Some viewed the use of technological tools as class-equalizing, expanding access to global knowledge Others feared that use of web-based platforms would promulgate automated and impersonal degree programs

Many who expect a transition to more use of technology-based approaches said they are likely

to cause a critical widening of the economic divide These respondents said they expect that those in the middle and lower socioeconomic classes will be educated through what they

consider to be inferior online delivery These survey participants value traditional, face-to-face methods and said they fear that in the future only elite students will be able to afford to

experience a well-grounded, personal education in a campus community

A distinct difference of opinion also emerged among the survey respondents as to what

constitutes human contact and an effective educational connection Many perceived the term

“distance learning” as encompassing impersonal and detached learning environments At the same time, cutting-edge educators and futurists noted that communication modes are

improving so rapidly that by 2020 a lack of geographical proximity will have little to no

deleterious effect upon learning

Some who wrote in support of the second scenario were enthusiastic about the move toward mixed methods—incorporating facets of existing pedagogy with emerging knowledge-

acquisition tools This hybrid approach—combining in-class “seat time” with online and peer learning—was extolled as the best approach by numerous respondents

peer-to-After being asked to choose one of the two 2020 scenarios presented in this survey question, respondents were also asked, “What will universities look like in 2020? Explain your choice and share your view of any implications for the future of universities What are the positives,

negatives, and shades of grey in the likely future you anticipate?”

Following is a selection from the hundreds of written responses survey participants shared when answering this question About half of the expert survey respondents elected to remain anonymous, not taking credit for their remarks Because people’s expertise is an important element of their participation in the conversation, the formal report primarily includes the comments of those who took credit for what they said The full set of expert responses, anonymous and not, can be found online at http://bit.ly/QtrbA2 The selected statements that follow here are grouped under headings that indicate some of the major themes

emerging from the overall responses The varied and conflicting headings indicate the wide range of opinions found in respondents’ reflective replies

Higher education will be significantly influenced by a changeover to new methods driven by opportunity, cost, and student and parent demands

Some survey respondents said higher education must retool itself in order to remain viable in

2020 and beyond “If higher education wants to survive, we cannot stay the same,” argued

Veronica Longenecker, assistant vice president of information technologies for Millersville

University “We are no longer meeting the needs of today’s learner Higher education needs to transform and we need to start today.”

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Such technological transformation is in its nascent stages, says Lee W McKnight, professor of

entrepreneurship and innovation at Syracuse University: “The transition has already begun en masse to online and hybrid models for collaborative learning,” he wrote “Residential

undergraduate and graduate education is a luxury good, hence the high prices Parents and young adults will still prize the traditional undergraduate campus experience in 2020, but by the numbers, an increasing number will learn with and through technology, on and off campus And assessment will take advantage of digital tools as well.”

A notable share of experts predict that market factors, including the overall health of the

economy, will galvanize universities to employ new delivery methods and new organizational models

It is expected that economics will be a primary influence on innovation Paige Jaeger, an adjunct

instructor at the State University of New York-Albany, proposed, “If the world's economy

collapses, cost efficiency will become the model of choice, and 18-year-olds may have to work just to eat No longer will families be able to afford the luxury of a four-year BA party.” An anonymous survey respondent concurred, writing, “I'm an online graduate student with a few required residencies in my program I believe technology will allow us to customize higher education The economy plays a role As much as I am an advocate of ‘learning for learning's sake,’ it is difficult to justify spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in higher education with the job market so dismal.”

Some survey participants said an online education is a cost-effective solution Peter J McCann,

senior staff engineer for Futurewei Technologies and chair of the Mobile IPv4 Working Group of the IETF, said, “The cost/benefit ratio of today's university education is grossly out of balance A four-year degree today can cost upwards of a quarter of a million dollars and often leaves graduates without the skills needed to compete in the job market In contrast, efforts like the Khan Academy show that high-quality lectures on undergraduate topics can be compiled and made accessible to everyone in the world for free The Internet will change the face of higher education, especially in third-world countries where incomes are low but the motivation to learn is high.”

As a result of choice in the marketplace, prospective students and their parents may play a hand

in charting the future path of university engagement online Ed Lyell, professor at Adams State College, consultant for using telecommunications to improve school effectiveness through the creation of 21st-century learning communities, and host of a regional public radio show on the economy, suggested, “Many powerful existing institutions will try to stay in the dark ages,

however since higher education is funded by student choice—with money following the

student—it is likely that both private and public universities will expand their use of technology and diminish their dependence on everything being based on ‘seat time.’”

Digital natives entering academia in 2020 will also push for shifts in pedagogical paradigms,

argues Greg Wilson, a marketing and public relations consultant who provides organizational

change management and service/execution process development services “Kids are more sophisticated and more tech-oriented with each year,” he wrote “By 2020, if education is unchanged they will have a hard time filling seats…What and how they are taught will be much different.”

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Some survey participants said higher education might become outmoded if it doesn’t move to implement online learning methods that incorporate crowd-sourcing and collective intelligence

Tom Hood, CEO of the Maryland Association of CPAs argued this is vital for the future of

universities “I have already seen examples of changes in higher education with new schools built around collaboration and technology-enhanced education,” he said “This gives me hope that they are in the process of evolving As Darwin said, it is not the strongest of the species that survives, it is the most adaptable Should higher education refuse to adapt to the changing styles

of this younger, tech-savvy generation and the needs of employers, it risks becoming irrelevant.”

A selection of related remarks by anonymous respondents:

“Hybrid classes will proliferate, and the pace of change will be fairly dramatic,

accelerating rapidly four to five years from now We already see greater flexibility in program requirements and different ‘unofficial’ trends towards individually oriented outcomes The current system is broken Both students and societies will be intensifying their demands for relevance, and this will drive rapid and unexpected changes.”

“Universities will instead have to focus on the higher levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy of application and evaluation, and the learning part will be delivered online.”

“Competition for shrinking numbers of undergraduates, threadbare budgets, and access

to cheaper technologies that exploit the possibilities of Web 3.0 will combine to

revolutionize higher education Hive models can be masterfully run by talented faculty who join the ranks without the perception of boundaries such as PowerPoint.”

“Instructors are finding that they can reach a broader audience in a more efficient manner through the use of technology The learners are changing the way they choose

to obtain their education.”

“Right now, student and teacher have access to the same information That needs to be exploited to turn the teaching/learning paradigm upside down That should happen by 2020.”

Economic realities will drive technological innovation forward by 2020 Yet, that might create a class structure where the rich get an immersive in-person experience, while others get inferior online offerings

Some survey respondents predicted that by 2020 U.S universities will be competing to attract

enrollees from a shrinking number of potential students Rebecca Bernstein, digital strategist

for the University at Buffalo-The State University of New York, wrote, “The change driver will not

be demand or technology It will be economics and a diminishing pool of applicants.”

An anonymous respondent wrote, “If traditional universities don't move in this direction, they will find themselves facing daunting, start-up competitors who will deliver educational value at lower prices for students coming from a contracting middle class.” Another anonymous survey participant said, “Decades of exorbitant cost inflation will end, probably abruptly, as education

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consumers and taxpayers run out of money Those universities that survive will have learned to live much more efficiently and to be more responsive to the customer (students).”

Entrepreneurial energy—stemming from corporate competition—will reshape higher education

by 2020, argues Robert Cannon, founder and director of Cybertelecom, and senior counsel for Internet law in the Federal Communication Commission's Office of Strategic Planning and Policy Analysis “The value equation for higher education is increasingly under pressure,” he noted ”If the classic notion of education at an isolated campus with poor dorms and bad food can no longer be justified, then someone will come up with a new model that implodes this.”

Peter Pinch, director of technology for WGBH, responded, “Physical access to educators will

become a premium experience reserved for the most advanced, the wealthiest and (perhaps) the most needy students Everyone else will move to virtual experiences, probably with more and more emphasis on just-in-time training instead of long courses of study.”

Several respondents said online content delivery will afford a free or affordable education to

those least advantaged around the world John McNutt, a professor of public policy and

administration at the University of Delaware, said, “From an economic standpoint, we cannot continue business as usual Without online education, only the wealthy will receive an education The traditional model is too expensive.”

Debbie Donovan, managing partner in an online company and marketing in life sciences blogger,

said, “It's well established that education is a great equalizer and elevates society as a whole, especially for women and girls The only way to make education more widely available

geographically and socioeconomically is to deliver university-level course work digitally.”

Some point to “open university” programs—such as those created by MIT, Princeton and

Stanford—as evidence there will be more opportunities for more education for millions or even

billions of adults by 2020 In fact, some experts say this market could augment the “big brands”

in higher education, while crowding out smaller liberal arts colleges Rich Osborne, senior IT

innovator at the University of Exeter, commented, “I think the real benefit may well be to those institutions who are already considered amongst the best in the world, and instead of seeing smaller institutions do well under this, they will either go out of business or be swallowed by the larger universities After all, students who cannot afford to leave home, but can afford to spend time and some money to study, would still wish to choose from the best available—and given that on a distance-learning playing field things may be much more level, it may be better for someone to choose a prestigious university from far away than choose a local one with far less prestige, yet charging similar fees.”

William L Schrader, independent consultant and lecturer on the future impact of the Internet on

the global economic, technological, medical, political, and social world, wrote, “Many

universities will be facing their demise in less than ten years The demand for higher education will not lessen; however, the source of that knowledge will follow the Internet on a global

basis…This is a warning to the university industry: Change with your market or lose them to the Internet.”

Some respondents expressed alarm at the prospect of bifurcated instructional quality based upon class status

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Steven Swimmer, a consultant who previously worked in digital leadership roles for a major

broadcast TV network, articulated the dichotomy “Major universities will offer more online programs,” he said, “but there will remain a huge value to the education that continues to have

a predominant in-person component We may see a greater divide along the lines of people with money and people without The wealthiest and brightest students will predominantly have the in-person education experience.”

An anonymous respondent wrote, “The value of the residential college experience has gone the way of the buggy whip Residential college will only be for the top 2 to 5% of students who are either intellectually or financially superior Those students will get access to the network of capital and influence to provide the country's leaders I think this is very, very sad and will cause lots of class issues, but that is where technology and economics will drive the universities.”

Brian Harvey, lecturer at the University of California-Berkeley, wrote, “It's been a long time

since people needed to come to a university to find knowledge or expertise; the Internet is just one step, although a big one, in the process that started with the printing press What students

find at a university is mainly each other—a culture of learning.”

An anonymous survey participant said, “I see declining federal and state investment in

education leading to ‘customized’ education for people from different class backgrounds Kids from families with very little money will get mass-produced education where they

teleconference with teachers who have perhaps hundreds or thousands of students Meanwhile, kids from wealthier families will have customized education with lots of valuable attention from many expert teachers.”

A selection of related remarks by anonymous respondents:

“Only the children of the very wealthy will be able to afford a college education in 2020 Teleconferencing, distance learning, and online courses will be the norm.”

“Public institutions and for-profit schools will be forced to adopt inexpensive ways to prepare students for jobs, but there will be less and less humanistic, liberal arts

education built into their curricula A tenured professorate of teaching scholars will only exist in the private elite sphere.”

“The most unfortunate likely result of ‘distance’ and interactive learning will be the acceleration of the stratification of education by class and income Those with more income will have access to a richer, less ‘virtual’ educational experience Those with less income will be slotted into what will be essentially online test preparation.”

“Economics will be of critical importance to which model wins out Long-term economic stagnation will make it that much harder for ‘working class’ families to send their kids to college (or to see the value of doing so) This might encourage the mainstream appeal of

‘hybrid’ models It might revert higher education to the luxury that it was prior to 1945.”

“Current institutions will remain very much the same and service those that have the financial means to attend Outside of the traditional institutions, alternatives, such as those mentioned in the second choice, will grow in numbers Because they do not rely

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as heavily on physical locations, but rely more on Web-based technologies, these

schools will be more affordable and more widely available to the middle class.”

“There will be strata of higher education, ranging from the full-on residential college to distance learning, and people will be able to choose from that continuum Ideally, this would not be hierarchical in terms of status, but I suspect the residential college model will continue to be the model for wealthier students with more leisure time and less pressure to work.”

“It will be a cost-containment approach that results in a degraded higher-learning

experience for all but the most privileged students.”

‘Distance learning’ is viewed with disdain by many who don’t see it as effective; others anticipate advances in knowledge-sharing by 2020

Numerous survey participants inveighed against online instructional practices These

respondents particularly derided the term “distance education”—a delivery method they often described as impersonal online videos, automated testing, asynchronous participation in online discussion boards, and/or submission of assignments to a faceless teacher

An anonymous respondent wrote, “Online interaction has shown too many drawbacks

compared to face-to-face interaction: Non-verbal communication cannot be conveyed using online media, and the efficacy/efficiency of offline groups is still too much higher than online groups The learning experience is also a social experience where students need to grasp not only academic resources, but also share experiences, learn from others, and experience a more cosmopolitan lifestyle These goals wouldn't be easily reachable in an online setting.”

There were many people who expressed sincere alarm at the prospect of mass classes with little

to no personal attention for the students They disparaged “distance education” and said a traditional, on-campus education has value that cannot be matched by any other experiences

Amber Case, CEO of Geoloqi, cyborg anthropologist, and professional speaker, said, “I greatly

benefited from in-person lectures, and they are still a very important component of life and education.”

Survey respondents referenced universities’ role as a socializing force Steve Sawyer, a

professor and associate dean of research at Syracuse University and expert of more than 20 years of research on the Internet, computing, and work, observed, “College will continue to be a place of advanced adolescence for many, and this requires face-to-face activities.”

An anonymous respondent wrote, “You won't get an undergraduate degree from Berkeley or Stanford or Harvard or Yale from your parents' basement Doing so would belie the real purpose Universities—where 17-year-olds turn into 21-year-olds and learn to make do for themselves for the first time, buy their first vacuum cleaner and their first cookbook, hold their first dinner party, and negotiate their first lease—these are about making the transition to adulthood and independence and have to be done in the real world.”

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Some respondents speculated that social networks may close the gap between face-to-face and online interactivity; after all, they are the “place” where college-age adults congregate when class is not in session

Jonathan Grudin, principal researcher at Microsoft, weighed that prospect “Whether online

social networking will provide mechanisms for youths to shed their high school personas and networks and try out new more mature personas and develop new more challenging and

rewarding networks, I don't know,” he said “Universities inevitably brought almost all students into forced contact with sets of people they might or might not have chosen to mix with, but they and society generally benefited from it happening, most people might agree (and I certainly believe so) Many traditional cultures have designed ‘rites of passage’ into adulthood, a

ceremony or accomplishment by which a youth who has assimilated what it means to be an adult in the culture is given license to shed his child persona and adopt an adult persona These have largely disappeared We may let people drive at 16, vote at 18, and drink at 21, but on the whole they don't mean that much Universities were a place some of us could start over, and without it I do not see how to guarantee a perpetuation of adolescence, unless economic

adversities between now and 2020 force many people to pull themselves together to survive I'd like to be more optimistic that some social media development will come along, but it will only happen if we want it to, and the evidence seems to be that prolonged adolescence is something our species can be comfortable with And maybe it isn't a bad thing, but I tend to think it isn't ideal So there is a shade of grey for you.”

Futurist John Smart—professor of emerging technologies at the University of Advancing

Technology and president and founder of the Acceleration Studies Foundation—took the notion further and said that by 2020 online social networking will already possess enough value to adequately substitute for the majority of traditional social networking on college campuses:

“The other value of college, the social one, meeting others who you network with to do things like start businesses, is the one that is rapidly moving online as social networks, meet-ups, and Internet television advance,” he said “The typical BS holder has just shown they can do

something difficult, nothing more This will remain 90% of the value of a college education (the social value will no longer be exclusive to brick-and-mortars by 2020) and will remain the

primary requirement for entry-level work in 2020 With luck, perhaps 20% of online and and-mortar BS students will be engaged in online (more than half) or in-person (less than half) internships at some point during or immediately after BS graduation Again, MS, technical, certificate, and remediation education will be online both earlier and more extensively.”

brick-Even the smell and feel of being face-to-face might be something possible to achieve by distance,

contended Tan Tin Wee, who is based at the National University of Singapore and a participant

and leader in many Internet engineering efforts He said, “In-person events will become all the more important Not all subjects can be de-physicalised Somebody has to be in physical contact

as much as we want to believe in telesurgery and tele-remote research in the wet lab Internet haptics and aromatics will take another few decades.”

Even today’s inexpensive tools like Skype and the affordances offered by Google Docs allow for

greater out-of-class interactivity Cyndy Woods-Wilson, an adjunct faculty member at Rio

Salado Community College in Tempe, Arizona, and content manager for the LinkedIn group Higher Education Teaching & Learning, wrote, “There is a need for speed, and fortunately we've got it Universities are quickly adapting content delivery modes from all face-to-face to using